Wound up as we wind down

By John Inverdale

12:01AM BST 01 May 2003

Mayday! Mayday! If ever there was a call for help coming from a rugby body at the moment, it is surely straight from European Rugby Cup who, for the good of the sport - never mind the competition sponsors - cannot allow the Heineken Cup final between Toulouse and Perpignan in Dublin later this month to attract a crowd of anything short of 40,000.

It is only to be hoped that every budget airline who run routes from south-west France are being encouraged to put on extra discounted flights, and that subsidised tickets are being made available to every school and club in Ireland. The trouble is there is a genuine danger that 'big-match fatigue' may dissuade Irish fans from turning out for the day the French come to town. The marketing men have a tough few weeks ahead.

As does the game as a whole, as tired players haul their bodies through yet more games and competitions. Do England players need the Barbarians match? Or the tour to North America? Do the elite players need the championship play-offs? Do junior players really need the County Championship as an add-on to their long season instead of being an integral part of it? How many still want to turn out in endless sevens tournaments that are scattered across the country?

Here we are in May, and the season still has a full month to run. It is a hoary old chestnut, but what chance one day soon of a properly constructed domestic calendar that runs from the last weekend in August to the first weekend in May, allowing a genuine close-season? (One day there will be a global season allowing properly coordinated international fixtures, but that debate is for another occasion.)

And while there is still plenty of time to ask the questions that need to be asked, let's do it. Why do they still not run enough trains away from Twickenham station on match days? Why does the Zurich Premiership allow itself to be treated like a second-class citizen?

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Why did the teams in it agree to the play-off format? Why have the rugby public of Bristol singularly failed to back a club who are an integral part of their sporting heritage? Why have Rotherham not been definitively promoted yet? Why have some teams in the National Leagues and below played on alternate weeks for the past two months?

Why does some guy from Leamington Spa (yes, you sir) write to me every week demanding to know why more pressure is not being put on the International Rugby Board to change the laws to ensure line-outs can replace uncontested scrums should the need arise? (Go to the Heineken final in Dublin and ask them yourself. Tickets are available.)

More questions than answers. But as the season winds down (and on), and we build up inexorably and pulsatingly towards the World Cup, it is also time to reflect on nine months that have done the game proud. The autumn internationals were exhilarating. The end of the league season has surely banished all pretence for the moment that a ring-fenced elite is good for the game.

The Six Nations was back on terrestrial television in its entirety. (I would say that, but it was unequivocally good for the game.) There was Will Greenwood. And most of all, we had a Grand Slam showdown that was a joy to behold. The 20 minutes before half-time provided some of the most compelling sporting theatre of recent years, so let's savour a sport that is in pretty rude health.